Before I start this entry, I am going to start by telling a
little story. Many years ago when places like HMV still sold VHS’s, I went into
that store and discovered in the clearance section a copy of this story for the
bargain price of £6.49 and so took it home and I can remember how much I loved
this story immediately after watching it. There aren’t many that have made me
feel like this and so ‘The Keeper of Traken’ has always held a special place in
my heart. Today is the start of another trilogy of stories however unlike the
E-Space trilogy, this isn’t an official trilogy but I think that this is a more
important trilogy because of what happens during the course of the next twelve
episodes. This is also the first episode to feature Anthony Ainley who will be
playing the Master at the end of this story and it also sees the first
appearance of Sarah Sutton who plays Nyssa. Nyssa is for me one of the best
companions in Doctor Who. Everytime there is a Nyssa story from Big Finish, I
look forward to theses stories even more.
The relationship between the Doctor and Adric seems to be a
lot better than it was when Romana was around. I think I quite like this
combination and had Tom Baker stayed in longer or Adric had come in early and
Romana left early then we would have had some good stories with this combination.
However as it is we just get an episode where they spend it together and most
of it is in the TARDIS. The Keeper pops up during these TARDIS scenes and
despite watching this story several times over the years, I didn’t realise that
the Keeper was played by Denis Carey who most people now would have seen as
Professor Chronotis in ‘Shada’. The purpose of the episode is explained by the
Keeper in just one scene and we learn how Traken is a nice place and I just
think that this is obviously not going to last once the Doctor and Adric
arrive.
The story that the Keeper tells is about the Melkur. I
really like the design of Melkur as even if you don’t know the big revelation that’s
coming about the Melkur, its hard not be impressed with it and it doesn’t really
do a lot but what it does do is very creepy and in particular how it just pops
up in the crack of the two doors in the chamber. The Melkur will become even
more relevant to the story in future episodes but just based on what has been
shown in todays episode there is still plenty to like about what is effectively
a statue.
On Traken, it’s a studio bound set yet at no point during
the course of the four episode did I find myself being bored with the action
and I didn’t really miss the outside filming.
The sets do look rather splendid and I think that a lot of time and
energy was put into making what appears on screen looks great. John Black’s
first foray into Doctor Who is at the moment a success.
If I had to pick some faults with this episode then there
are two and just two. The first is the slightly frustrating matter of the Doctor
and Adric trying to convince people that they are there for good reasons. The
icing on the cake comes when the Keeper says “Evil” and naturally everyone
thinks that he is referring to the Doctor and Adric. The second fault is that
the cliffhanger is rather disappointing because it doesn’t really have any
drama or tension to it. The point of a cliffhanger is to give the viewer a
reason to tune in for the next instalment but on this occasion there isn’t really
a reason. The only reason that there would be to tune in it to see what is
going on elsewhere in the story.
As an episode it’s a good start to the story and things are
set up for the rest of the serial. After being slightly disappointed with the
previous story, it was nice to get back to being enthusiastic about what I see
on screen. As part of the Master/New Beginnings trilogy it’s a promising start
and the countdown to the Davison era really starts now.
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